Staff Pick

A Homemade Life combines my favorite elements: memoir, travel writing, food writing, recipes, a beautiful love story, and quirky family anecdotes, along with all the things that make the Orangette blog one of my online obsessions. Molly Wizenberg weaves together personal stories with innovative recipes that will change the way you look at dinner. She has an inspiring reverence for fresh ingredients, and the simplicity of many of the recipes makes them accessible. The Winning Hearts and Minds chocolate wedding cake is heavenly and incredibly worth taking the time to bake; it quickly became my best dinner-party trick.Recommended by Serra, Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

When Molly Wizenberg's father died of cancer, everyone told her to go easy on herself, to hold off on making any major decisions for a while. But when she tried going back to her apartment in Seattle and returning to graduate school, she knew it wasn't possible to resume life as though nothing had happened. So she went to Paris, a city that held vivid memories of a childhood trip with her father, of early morning walks on the cobbled streets of the Latin Quarter and the taste of her first pain au chocolat. She was supposed to be doing research for her dissertation, but more often, she found herself peering through the windows of chocolate shops, trekking across town to try a new patisserie, or tasting cheeses at outdoor markets, until one evening when she sat in the Luxembourg Gardens reading cookbooks until it was too dark to see, she realized that her heart was not in her studies but in the kitchen.

At first, it wasn't clear where this epiphany might lead. Like her long letters home describing the details of every meal and market, Molly's blog Orangette started out merely as a pleasant pastime. But it wasn't long before her writing and recipes developed an international following. Every week, devoted readers logged on to find out what Molly was cooking, eating, reading, and thinking, and it seemed she had finally found her passion. But the story wasn't over: one reader in particular, a curly-haired, food-loving composer from New York, found himself enchanted by the redhead in Seattle, and their email correspondence blossomed into a long-distance romance.

In A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, Molly Wizenberg recounts a life with the kitchen at its center. From her mother's pound cake, a staple of summer picnics during her childhood in Oklahoma, to the eggs she cooked for her father during the weeks before his death, food and memories are intimately entwined. You won't be able to decide whether to curl up and sink into the story or to head straight to the market to fill your basket with ingredients for Cider-Glazed Salmon and Pistachio Cake with Honeyed Apricots.

Review:

"Wizenberg's debut shares the same basic format as her Orangette blog — favorite recipes interspersed with personal reflection — but constructed around a much tighter family narrative. Memories of her father, for example, begin with his cherished formula for potato salad and an attempt to recreate his French toast, but also include a variation on scrambled eggs that spurred a comforting moment as he was dying of cancer. The second half of the memoir focuses on her blossoming relationship with Brandon, who started out as a fan of the blog, became a long-distance boyfriend and eventually moved to Seattle and married her — of course, she shares the recipes for the pickled carrots they served at the wedding as well as the chocolate cake she baked for dessert. Though there is an emphasis on desserts, the recipes cover a variety of meals, none beyond the range of an ordinary cook, and Wizenberg's directions are laced with a charming voice that strikes a neat balance with the reflective passages. Her strong personality stands out among her generation's culinary voices." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"These recipes run the gamut from a favorite childhood dessert called Hoosier Pie through soups and meatballs to some unique tiny pastries based on canned tuna. Fans of the authors popular blog will be particularly attracted to this autobiography." Booklist

Synopsis:

A memoir with a practical purpose and a cookbook with a life beyond the kitchen, this resource offers 50 recipes full of fresh flavors, and the author's lessons from the kitchen that show who people are, who they love, and who they want to be.

About the Author

Molly Wizenberg is a freelance food writer and the creator of the award-winning blog Orangette. She is a regular contributor to Bon Appétit, and her writing has been featured on NPR.org and PBS.org and has been praised in the Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, and The Seattle Times. Wizenberg has degrees in human biology, French, and cultural anthropology, but in 2005, she left the world of academia to write full-time.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Average customer rating based on 4 comments:

Laurie Blum, March 15, 2010 (view all comments by Laurie Blum)
"If you are a "foodie" or just love a new recipe, absolutely take a look at Molly Wizenberg's blog, Orangette. But also give yourself the pleasure of reading this talented author's book "A Homemade Life" (stories and recipes from my kitchen table)as well. The writing is young, fresh & full of depth and energy. I loved the tribute to her father, lovingly named "Burg"
Without straining for connections, and with a natural generosity, Molly Wizenberg uses her writing as well as her cooking to give full attention to Life. She tells us easily in funny, lyrical and tender tales which center on something savored, that feeding people is loving them and that by "the simple acts of cooking and eating, we are creating and continuing the stories that are our lives." BRAVA for her unique additions of chocolate! Bon Appetite!"

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No(5 of 9 readers found this comment helpful)

Denise Morland, April 19, 2009 (view all comments by Denise Morland)
Molly Wizenberg has written a beautiful tribute to her family, her father in particular, and to the soothing, comforting, exciting power of food. She starts by introducing us to her family, and before long you feel like one of them, in the kitchen late at night stirring, tasting, and baking Fresh Ginger Cake with Caramelized Pears. She takes us to Paris and Seattle and we meet all her friends along the way. Molly gently leads us through Christmas with Espresso-Walnut Toffee, her father's battle with cancer with Italian Grotto Eggs, and to the French Style Yogurt Cake with Lemon that changed everything. Her stories are simple, like her food, but comforting and filling too.

Molly Wizenberg is absolutely one of the best food writers I have read. She has a way of drawing you in, making you feel a part of the story, and she makes me itch to get in the kitchen and try her recipes! This is a book I will use often, mostly when I have the urge to cook, but can't decide what. I'll give this book to friends and family and hope they get the same feelings of contentment and joy from this book as I did.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No(12 of 17 readers found this comment helpful)

sarahgilbert, March 5, 2009 (view all comments by sarahgilbert)
This book, in turns, delighted and foundered. Molly does have a sweet, unique voice and an emerging talent for writing. She does not, however, have a great deal of conflict in her life. She writes simple stories of her life that, on balance, are happy and quirky; but not many of them are profound. (Perhaps I'm asking too much of a food memoir.) She shines most when she _is_ talking conflict; when her father is dying of cancer, the book is extremely moving and eloquent. When her soon-to-be-husband is wooing her through emails and pancakes spelling out her name, she's less compelling, although it seems dedicated fans of her blog continue to be enchanted through the denouement of sorts, the planning and execution of her Seattle foodie delight of a wedding. As a cookbook? Her precision and detailed instructions shine, and the recipes I've tried thus far are perfect. I recommend the book to food-loving fans of optimism and youth. I wouldn't recommend it to those whose tastes run to the Oprah book club-style novels of human anguish.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No(17 of 33 readers found this comment helpful)

A Homemade Life combines my favorite elements: memoir, travel writing, food writing, recipes, a beautiful love story, and quirky family anecdotes, along with all the things that make the Orangette blog one of my online obsessions. Molly Wizenberg weaves together personal stories with innovative recipes that will change the way you look at dinner. She has an inspiring reverence for fresh ingredients, and the simplicity of many of the recipes makes them accessible. The Winning Hearts and Minds chocolate wedding cake is heavenly and incredibly worth taking the time to bake; it quickly became my best dinner-party trick.

by Serra

"Publishers Weekly Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"Wizenberg's debut shares the same basic format as her Orangette blog — favorite recipes interspersed with personal reflection — but constructed around a much tighter family narrative. Memories of her father, for example, begin with his cherished formula for potato salad and an attempt to recreate his French toast, but also include a variation on scrambled eggs that spurred a comforting moment as he was dying of cancer. The second half of the memoir focuses on her blossoming relationship with Brandon, who started out as a fan of the blog, became a long-distance boyfriend and eventually moved to Seattle and married her — of course, she shares the recipes for the pickled carrots they served at the wedding as well as the chocolate cake she baked for dessert. Though there is an emphasis on desserts, the recipes cover a variety of meals, none beyond the range of an ordinary cook, and Wizenberg's directions are laced with a charming voice that strikes a neat balance with the reflective passages. Her strong personality stands out among her generation's culinary voices." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Review"
by Booklist,
"These recipes run the gamut from a favorite childhood dessert called Hoosier Pie through soups and meatballs to some unique tiny pastries based on canned tuna. Fans of the authors popular blog will be particularly attracted to this autobiography."

"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
A memoir with a practical purpose and a cookbook with a life beyond the kitchen, this resource offers 50 recipes full of fresh flavors, and the author's lessons from the kitchen that show who people are, who they love, and who they want to be.

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